Fukui, Toshihiko

As of this printing, the governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ). He took over for Masaru Hayami, who retired after his term ended in April 2003. Before becoming governor, Fukui, like Hayami, had rejected establishing an inflation target or taking other radical steps to stop the effects of deflation and move the economy forward.

Fukui is a career bureaucrat and previously had been a deputy governor of the bank. He headed the research and credit management bureaus and became executive director before becoming deputy governor.

In 1998, while serving as deputy governor, he and then-BOJ-governor, Yasuo Matsushita were forced to resign over a bribery scandal that involved leaks of financially sensitive information. Fukui then became chairman of the Fujitsu Research Institute, a private policy group. In April 2001, he became vice chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives, a business lobbying organization better known as Keizai Doyukai. That appointment won Fukui strong support among the business community and helped win his appointment as governor of the BOJ.